tries in Europe, owe the firft raifing of his fortune to a "cofmetic wafh.

be

THIS has given me occafion to confider how fo univerfala difpofition in womankind, which springs from a laudable motive, the defire of pleafing, and proceeds upon an opinion, not altogether groundless, that nature may helped by art, may be turned to their advantage. And, methinks, it would be an acceptable fervice to take them out of the hands of quacks and pretenders, and to pre-. vent their impofing upon themfelves, by difcovering to them the true fecret and art of improving beauty.

In order to this, before I touch upon it directly, it will be neceffary to lay down a few preliminary maxims, viz. THAT no woman can be handfome by the force of features alone, any more than fhe can be witty only by. the help of fpeech.

THAT pride deftroys all: fymmetry and grace, and affectation is a more terrible enemy to fine faces than the fmall-pox.

THAT no woman is capable of being beautiful, who is not incapable of being false.

" AND, that what would be odious in a friend, is de-. formity in a mistress..

FROM thefe few principles, thus laid down, it will. be eafy to prove, that the true art of affifting beauty confifts in embellifhing the whole perfon by the proper ornaments of virtuous and commendable qualities. By. this help alone it is, that thofe who are the favourite work of nature, or, as Mr Dryden expreffes it, the por celain clay of humankind, become animated, and are in a capacity of exerting their charms and those who seem to have been neglected by her, like models wrought in hafte, are capable in a great meafure of finifhing what he has left imperfect.

It is, methinks, a low and degrading idea of that fex,. which was created to refine the joys, and foften the caresof humanity, by the moft agreeable participation, to confider them merely as objects of light. This is abridging them of their natural extent of power, to put them upon a level with their pictures at Kneller's. How much nobler is the contemplation of beauty heightened by virtue, and commanding our esteem and love, while it

draws

a

draws our observation? How faint and spiritless are the charms of a coquette, when compared with the real lovelinefs of Sophronia's innocence, piety, good-humour, and truth; virtues which add a new foftnefs to her fex, and even beautify her beauty! That agreeableness, which muft otherwife have appeared no longer in the modeft virgin, is now preferved in the tender mother, the prudent friend, and the faithful wife. Colours artfully fpread · upon canvas may entertain the eye, but not affect the heart; and the who takes no care to add to the natural graces of her perfon any excelling qualities, may be al lowed ftill to amufe, as a picture, but not to triumph,. as a beauty.

WHEN Adam is introduced by Milton, defcribing Eve · in paradife, and relating to the angel the impreffions he felt upon feeing her at her firft creation, he does not reprefent her like a Grecian Venus, by her shape or features, but by the luftre of her mind which fhone in them, and gave them their power of charming.

Grace was in all her steps, heav'n in her eye,
In all her geflures dignity and love!

WITHOUT this irradiating power the proudeft fairone ought to know, whatever her glafs may tell her to the contrary, that her most perfect features are uninform

ed and dead..

I CANNOT better close this moral, than by a short epitaph written by Ben Johnson, with a fpirit which nothing could infpire but fuch an object as I have been defcribing.

Underneath this fone doth lie
As much virtue as cou'd die :
Which when alive did vigour give
To as much beauty as could live..
I am, SIR,

Your most humble fervant,

R. B.

N° 34°

Monday, April 9.

-parcit

Juv. Sat. 15.1. 159.

Gognatis maculis fimilis fera

From Spotted skins the leopard does refrain.

TATE.

HE club of which I am a member, is very luckily

Tonpofed of fuch perfons as are engaged in different

ways of life, and deputed as it were out of the most confpicuous claffes of mankind: by this means I am furnished with the greatest variety of hints and materials, and know every thing that paffes in the different quarters and divifions, not only of this great city, but of the whole 'king." dom. My readers too have the fatisfaction to find that there is no rank or degree among them who have not their reprefentative in this club, and that there is always fome body prefent who will take care of their refpective interefts, that nothing may be written or published to the judice or infringement of their just rights and privileges.

pre

I LAST night fat very late in company with this felect body of friends, who entertained me with feveral remarks which they and others had made upon these my fpeculations, was alfo with the various fuccefs which they had met with among their several ranks and degrees of readers. WILL HONEYCOMB told ine, in the fofteft manner he could, that there were fome ladies (but for your comfort, fays WILL, they are not thofe of the moft wit) that were offended at the liberties I had taken with the opera and the puppetfhow ; that fome of them were likewife very much furpri fed, that I should think fuch serious points as the drefs and equipage of perfons of quality, proper fubjects for rallery.

He was going on, when Sir ANDREW FREEPORT took him up fhort, and told him, that the papers he hinted at had done great good in the city, and that all their wives and daughters were the better for them; and further added, that the whole city thought themselves very much obliged to me for declaring my generous intentions to

fcourge

fcourge vice and folly as they appear in a multitude, without condescending to be a publifher of particular intrigues and cuckoldoms. In fhort, fays Sir ANDREW, if you avoid that foolish beaten road of falling upon aldermen and citizens, and employ your pen upon the vanity and luxury of courts, your paper muft needs be of general ufe.

UPON this my friend the TEMPLER told Sir ANDREW, that he wondered to hear a man of his fenfe talk after that manner; that the city had always been the province for fatire; and that the wits of King Charles's time jefted upon nothing elfe during his whole reign. He then thewed, by the examples of Horace, Juvenal, Boileau, and the best writers of every age, that the follies of the ftage and court had never been accounted too facred for ridicule, how great foever the perfons might be that patronized them: But after all, fays he, I think your rallery has made too great an excurfion, in attacking feveral perfons of the Inns of Court; and I do not believe you can fhew me any precedent for your behaviour in that particular.

Το

My good friend Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY, who had faid nothing all this while, began his fpeech with a pish! and told us, that he wondered to fee fo many men of fenfe very ferious upon fooleries. Let our good friend, fays he, attack every one that deferves it: I would only advife you, Mr SPECTATOR, applying himself to me, to take care how you meddle with country-fquires: they are the ornaments of the English nation; men of good heads and found bodies! and let me tell you, fome of them take it ill of you, that you mention fox-hunters with fo little respect.

CAPTAIN Sentry spoke very fparingly on this occafion. What he faid was only to cominend my prudence in not touching upon the army, and advifed me to continue to act difcreetly in that point.

By this time I found every fubject of my fpeculations was taken away from me by one or other of the club; and began to think myfelf in the condition of the good man that had one wife who took a diflike to his grey hairs, and another to his black, till by their picking out what each of them had an averfion to, they left his head altogether bald and naked.

WHILE I was thus mufing with myfelf, my worthy friend the clergyman, who, very luckily for me, was at the club that night, undertook my caufe. He told us that he wondered any order of perfons (hould think themselves too confiderable to be advised: that it was not quality, but innocence, that exempted men from reproof: that vice and folly ought to be attacked where-ever they could be met with, and efpecially when they were placed in high and confpicuous ftations of life. He further added,

He

that my paper would only ferve to aggravate the pains of poverty, if it chiefly expofed those who are already depreff ed, and in fome meafure turned into ridicule, by the meannefs of their conditions and circumstances. afterwards proceeded to take notice of the great ufe this paper might be of to the public, by reprehending those vices which are too trivial for the chastisement of the law, and too fantastical for the cognisance of the pulpit. He then advised me to profecute my undertaking with chearfulness, and affured me, that whoever might be difpleased with me, I should be approved of by all those whose praifes do honour to the perfons on whom they are bestowed.

THE whole club pays a particular deference to the dif courfe of this gentleman, and are drawn into what he fays as much by the candid ingenuous manner with which he delivers himself, as by the ftrength of argument and force of reafon which he makes ufe of. WILL. HONEYCOMB immediately agreed, that what he had faid was right; and that, for his part, he would not infift upon the quarter which he had demanded for the ladies. Sir ANDREW gave up the city with the fame franknefs. The TEMPLAR would not stand out and was followed by Sir ROGER and the CAPTAIN: who all agreed that I should be at liberty to carry the war into what quarter I pleafed; provided I continued to combat with criminals in a body, and to affault the vice without hurting the perfon.

THIS debate which was held for the good of mankind, put me in mind of that which the Roman triumvirate were formerly engaged in, for their deftruction. Every man at firft ftood hard for his friend, till they found that by this means they fhould fpoil their profcription: and at length' making a facrifice of all their acquaintance and relations, furnished out a very decent execution.

VOL. I.

M

HAVING